For a seventh year the New Orleans Photo Alliance, in conjunction with museums, galleries and photographers citywide, fills the Crescent City with exhibitions, portfolio reviews, workshops, book signings, panel discussions and more, all celebrating the art of photography. Most events are free and open to the public. Highlights include:

• More than forty exhibitions featuring work by Shelby Lee Adams, Deborah Luster, Louviere + Vanessa, Keith Carter, Kathleen Robbins, Steve Pyke, Aline Smithson, Priya Kambli, and an Indie Photobook Library pop-up, among others.
• PhotoNOLA festivities kick into full gear on Thursday, November 29, with two daytime workshops led by Aline Smithson and Lori Waselchuk. The evening features the PhotoGALA Benefit Party & Print Auction at the Musée Conti Historical Wax Museum, beginning with a Patrons’ Preview Party at 6 pm and general admission from 7 pm–10 pm.
• Education Day, Friday, November 30, features a morning session focusing on the artist/gallery relationship and is led by Sasha Wolf, owner of the Sasha Wolf Gallery in New York’s Chelsea district.  Mary Virginia Swanson leads the afternoon session detailing new markets for fine art images and explains licensing and reproduction rights.  In the evening, two museums will host photographic programming.  The New Orleans Museum of Art offers a special photo-focused Where Y’Art, including a lecture by their curator of photography, Russell Lord.  And the Ogden Museum of Southern Art opens CURRENTS 2012, curated by Richard McCabe and is followed with our keynote lecture by Shelby Lee Adams.
• PhotoNOLA’s portfolio review, with an international cast of more than twenty curators, editors, and gallerists, takes place December 1–2.  On Saturday morning Deborah Luster will lead a walk-through of her exhibition at the Arthur Roger Gallery and in the afternoon Jennifer Schwartz will present her Crusade for Collecting lecture at the Ogden Museum.  Saturday evening’s PhotoWALK offers a public peek at the work of 65 rising photographers from across the country, all of whom are participants in the Review sessions.  Receptions follow at photography exhibitions across the city with particular concentrations along the Julia Street and Magazine Street corridors.
• Sunday, December 2 brings a lecture by noted photographer Henry Horenstein at the Ogden Museum, a portraiture workshop with Steve Pyke, and a wet-plate collodion demo at Homespace Gallery using a tent as a camera.  The Contemporary Arts Center will host talks with Larissa Leclair, founder of the Indie Photobook Library and featured artist Priya Kambli. That night, galleries in the St. Claude Arts District will open their doors for a Sunday evening art stroll.

This is just a small sampling, a complete schedule is at photonola.org.